


Crumbs and Challenges

by grainjew



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, i just always forget to include the tag haha, like everything i write is missing scenes, shes kind of the worst and i love her, viola is a snob but shes french and a photographer so like what are you expecting, viola voice: ugh. AMERICANS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-26 21:47:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20396653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grainjew/pseuds/grainjew
Summary: The day after Ash's rematch at the Santalune City Gym, Ash and Viola talk battle tactics and bug types over flaky kalosian pastries.





	Crumbs and Challenges

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fallingwish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingwish/gifts).

> i have some Thoughts about ash’s characterization in kalos (the simplified thread of them is that they overbalanced in the other direction from how they treated him in unova — played up the leadership and experience at the expense of his weirdness vs played up the zany dumbassery and wonder at the expense of his competence — and only got to something resembling a balance of the two sides in alola, which is one of the many reasons why alola is my favorite region) but i can’t say that they didn’t do well by his battling experience in kalos, haha
> 
> anyways viola? an icon. and that was not a beginner’s battle, either time he fought her

"I wanted to apologize," said Viola. She took a bite of her pain au chocolat. "I underestimated you."

They were in a cafe in Santalune — ostensibly Ash was buying sweet things to surprise Bonnie with when she got hungry on the road, and Viola had offered to show him the best places to get them, but then they both got hungry enough to decide to just eat some of their spoils.

"Eh," said Ash. "Me an' Pikachu underestimated you right back, and we got a loss for it."

Viola smiled. "To be fair, Alexa _ did _ warn me about you. I wasn't about to give someone who ostensibly placed top 8 in the Unova League a beginner's battle."

"Which is why we lost, the first time!" Ash gestured, sending flaky pastry crumbs flying off his hand. "Usually gyms we visit on zero badges don't know that sort of thing, and I don't really mind, cause it's good experience for whoever's new on my team. Plus me an' Pikachu usually take a bit to get settled in a new region, so," he took a bite of croissant and continued with his mouth full, "y'know."

"So you switch up your team often?" Alexa hummed. "Your fletchling was _ good, _ but it didn't have the experience your pikachu had; that was obvious."

"Well, sorta," said Ash. "Pikachu's my partner! So we go to every region together, but it's just us when we get there. Fletchling and Froakie are both from Kalos!"

"I see," said Viola.

"Wait, did you meet Froakie? I don't think you met Froakie!" He held a pokeball by the tabletop and said, "Froakie, come on out!"

The froakie which Viola had definitely, if not been formally introduced to, at least seen around with Ash’s travelling party, materialized before he was done speaking. "Froakie," it croaked, looking decidedly unimpressed with the crumbs littering the table. 

"I believe we've met," said Viola. "But it's good to see you again, Froakie. Perhaps we'll battle someday."

The froakie nodded so solemnly Viola had to keep herself from laughing. "Froak," it said, and hopped up to Ash's shoulder.

"That'd be awesome!" said Ash. "Froakie's _ super _ strong, too! And brave and clever! So we gotta have another rematch!"

The froakie leaned into Ash's neck and Viola thought it would be blushing, if froakie could blush. She was reminded of Vivillion as a spewpa, all clingy and cuddly. That froakie was probably the same, when nobody was watching — Ash reached up to put a hand through frubbles and stroke its back, to prove her right.

"I don't intend on losing," said Viola. "Fair warning, and all."

"Don't worry," said Ash. "Neither do we!"

"Froakie!" agreed Froakie.

"I wasn't," said Viola, because she hadn't been. "I have been wondering, though — I haven't seen your pikachu apart from you until this morning?"

Ash shrugged dramatically and shoved the last of his croissant into his mouth. "Had to distract Bonnie somehow!"

"I suppose," said Viola. As the younger sibling, she'd always been the one _ being _ distracted, so she supposed she wouldn't know. There had to be other ways to do the job, though.

"Plus Pikachu's trying to teach Dedenne to fight," he continued. Froakie's long tongue snagged a crumb off his hand. "Bonnie thinks it's the coolest thing to watch, which it is, because Pikachu's awesome and Dedenne learns really fast. So that's what they're doing."

"I see," said Viola again. She watched Ash letting Froakie lick his hands clean of pastry. "Well then," she added, once it was clear he didn’t have anything else to say on the topic. "If you'll excuse my interest, have you caught any bug-types in the past?"

"Oh, yeah!" Ash rescued one hand to count off on his fingers, and gestured with the other. "There's Leavanny from Unova, who's super awesome and determined and _ wow, _ and Heracross — we did Johto together and then it came and helped with the Sinnoh League too! And also Butterfree, from Kanto!" His face dipped. "It left to start a family, but that's okay, because it's happy."

"Mm," hummed Viola sympathetically. "You should meet my heracross." She smiled. "It's a total sweetheart, although you wouldn't know it from looking. Not huge on battling, but an _ enormous _ help with my photography."

"Oh, whoa, you have a heracross too?" Ash's face brightened right back up, in a child's easily-distracted manner. "That's so cool! What other pokemon've you got?"

"I should probably just introduce you to the teams,” she said, and tried not to sound too excited. It wasn’t often she got to show off her full team, and especially not to a challenger who already knew how she battled and had won her badge. Not that she thought Ash would mind enthusiasm. “I’ve a fair few, and I’ve been meaning to take some portraits of Ledian anyways, now that she’s evolved — would you like to come along?”

“Yeah, ‘course!” said Ash, already picking up Froakie’s pokeball off the table and his bag of pastries off the ground. “But first let’s stop by the pokemon center, so you can meet Heracross and Leavanny!”

Viola stood up, with the last of her pain au chocolat in hand. The waitstaff would clear the plates; this was Kalos, not Unova. “And also to hide that bag from Bonnie?”

“Yeah, that too! Thanks for reminding me!” 

They ended up running back to the pokemon center — or Ash did, at least, and then walked backwards until he slammed into a lamppost waiting for Viola and her camera to catch up. Bonnie and the two electric-types were in the battlefield out to the side, and as Ash passed by, Pikachu took a running leap into Ash’s stomach, said something, and then darted back towards the dedenne, while Ash darted with equal speed to the guestroom to stash his pastries. 

Viola met him at a more sedate pace in the lobby. He was standing in front of the videophone, tapping his fingers as he waited for the person on the other end to pick up. Professor Oak, if he was to be believed — he’d mentioned offhandedly in between the banging into a lamppost and the getting slammed into by his pokemon partner that _ the _Professor Oak took care of his team while he was away. 

Viola wouldn’t have credited it, but she recognized the Lumiose City gym leader when she saw him — although she was a little surprised Clemont of Lumiose was acting like he didn’t recognize her. Then again he wasn’t exactly credited with much social skill, and he’d only been gym leader a year and a half now, which was a short enough time to still be able to walk around without people knowing him, and, though it would take a certain isolation, a short enough time to be able to walk through Kalos without knowing the faces of its other gym leaders. Travelling with company like that, she’d believe Ash to know Professor Oak. And in any case, she wasn’t sure Ash knew how to lie. 

Her remaining doubts were put to rest when the camera flickered on to show the face of Kanto’s renowned Pokemon Professor, smiling an almost fatherly smile.

"Hi, Professor Oak!” said Ash immediately. “D'you think you could get Leavanny and Heracross? That's Viola, she really likes bug-types!" Professor Oak blinked. He opened his mouth to speak, but Ash overrode him. "Oh! She's also gotta meet Tracey and Venonat and Scyther! D’you think—"

“It’s good to see you’re doing well, Ash,” said Professor Oak. His voice had a deep patience in it, the kind drawn from experience, and the tone of it brought Ash up short. “Did you win your gym battle?”

“He did,” said Viola, before Ash could answer with another overwhelming flow of words. “It’s lovely to meet you, Professor Oak; I’m Viola, Santalune City’s gym leader.” She paused. Meeting people over videophone was always awkward, especially when they were world-renowned researchers. “...and, yes, I really like bug-types.”

Professor Oak nodded courteously. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Viola,” he said. “And congratulations, Ash. Your first Kalos gym badge!”

“Thanks!” said Ash, and he really was beaming. Viola figured Professor Oak did more for him than keep his pokemon. He tapped his hand against the side of the videophone screen. “So, Leavanny and Heracross? And, wait, you said last time that Pignite was having a little trouble settling in…?”

Professor Oak waved a hand. “Don’t you worry about that; your infernape took it under its wing. Not to mention your charizard— I think it likes to be responsible.” Ash made a face. “They’re all thick as thieves now; I couldn’t separate them if I tried.”

“Oh, good,” said Ash. “Wonder what Bulbasaur…” He let out a breath, and then added, “I’ll talk to them all later? When Viola’s done showing me…”

“Yes, yes,” said Professor Oak. “How many pokemon do you have on you?”

Ash looked out the side door to the training field and then at Froakie on his shoulder, who had been watching the whole conversation with solemn eyes. “It’s just me and Pikachu and Froakie and Fletchling, don’t worry!”

“Alright, I’ll send them right over. And get Tracey’s attention for you, too.”

“Thanks, Professor!” said Ash. 

Ash waved, and Professor Oak turned to walk away from the videophone. Viola thought he was laughing, a little. 

As soon as he was out of sight — although still audible shouting in the distance for a Tracey — Ash turned back to her and launched entirely without preamble back into his monologue about the entire history of his bug types, from before he banged his head on the way to the pokemon center. "So when I was battling Burgh — d'you know him? He gives out the Insect Badge, in Unova —"

He paused, for half a second, and Viola realized he expected her to interject. She did know the man. The one time they'd met, at a photography convention in Castelia City he'd organized, she'd found him somewhat insufferable. But he'd probably felt the same way about her, and his gym was beautiful, so they were on good enough terms. “We’ve spoken, yes.”

“Awesome!” said Ash. “Well anyways he has this whirlipede — and this was Sewaddle’s first gym battle, you know! — so Sewaddle was — ”

And as Ash chattered on, unendingly enthusiastic, love alight in his eyes, she realized she had no sense of how far he had come before arriving at her gym, how far he would go after. 

She said, interrupting him: “I’m looking forward to our next rematch.”

Perhaps she’d use her best team. Perhaps she’d show him what a gym leader of Kalos could really do. Perhaps the powerful gift Aaron of the Sinnoh Elite Four had mentioned he was sending for her and Beedrill would have arrived. 

Whatever happened, she knew it would be fantastic, because sometime in the past few days Viola had found her way past doubt and concern to figure out what exactly Alexa saw, in the boy from Pallet Town whose face was lined with love.

“Yeah! Me too!”

“Froakie!”

**Author's Note:**

> [1:11 AM] 🦎 lume 🐌: go to sleep, skeletor  
[1:11 AM] zephaniah 🌾: as soon as i finish writing about ash ketchum walking backwards into a lampost because he isnt paying attention  
[1:11 AM] Void: Is his hat on backwards  
[1:12 AM] zephaniah 🌾: no just the rest of him


End file.
